I intend to forward a formal written copy to Orcon. My friend advised me to post this online to get a quicker response. The first part was meant to be sent last month, but I refrained from doing so because I thought I would let it slide. However, a new issue has cropped up, and I am force to join my previous complaints with the new issue.

LETTER OF COMPLAINT

Dear Orcon,

I am writing this letter to voice my disappointment with the delivery of your services. Let me start by saying that I have been a loyal customer of Orcon for many years now and that I was once very satisfied with what you had provided. Unfortunately, my recent experiences with you have changed my perception considerably.

About two weeks ago I opted to change my plan from the Orcon Purple (which included no landline, and had cost me $30 something a month for the first gigabyte, and two dollars a gigabyte thereof) to the Orcon Genius. I decided to change my plan after receiving bills that exceeded $100 a month. Ordinarily, I would take responsibility for the amount of internet being used by my family members, but I have a bone to pick with such a plan and which consumers it should be recommended to.

Orcon Purple is an ancient plan, and I am surprised that it still operates for families such as our own. Today, many households are connected to high-speed internet and are using well over the mere gigabyte. Understandably, there will be the odd customer who feels that one gigabyte is sufficient, but I do not represent those customers. I would like to think that your company has the ability to provide convenience by introducing to fellow customers better plans, especially for those households that are using the internet more frequently and have received bills in the $100+ range. Of course, I am aware that you have rolled out new plans for the Orcon Genius and have an advertising campaign on television, magazines, and on your website. But as far as I am concerned, your campaign only seems to target a specific type of audience—new customers.

Why should I pay more money for Orcon Purple, when there are cheaper plans out there that would easily cater my needs? More specifically, why are not current customers being advised by your representatives to change to these new plans when this sort of usage is occurring? I can tell you that both Telecom and Telstraclear have sent me, on a regular basis, pamphlets detailing their offers. I have often thought about changing to these, as they have made the effort to introduce to me their offers. Attached with this letter is my latest invoice statement before I left the Orcon Purple plan. For one month of internet usage I was charged a staggering $178.84, almost double the price of any one of your Orcon Genius or any one of your competitor’s plans (for example, Slingshot offers unlimited internet at $90 a month). I must not be wrong to say that the bill I received would be expensive for any household in New Zealand.

My second complaint regards the support line. When I changed to Orcon Genius, I specifically asked for a handset to be included with the router. What use is having a landline with Orcon, and not receiving a handset from you guys, when conventional handsets will not work? Unfortunately, I received no handset with my package. And after a very lengthy conversation with one of your representatives about the missing piece, I was left rather confused and frustrated. I was told that my contract would be extended from 12 months to 24 months, unless I was willing to incur an additional $10 month fee on the plan. I agreed to the condition to extend the contract period, but was left confused as to what this was all about. It all seemed like a marketing-scheme just to keep us on-board on the plan for a longer period and an opportunity for one of your representatives to make a bigger sale. The representative did a terrible job of explaining it all in broken English. In all honesty, I should have just opted to terminate my contract then and there to save time.

My third complaint regards faulty equipment. After the debacle of the second complaint, I sent back the Orcon Genius package and received a new router with my handset. Within a week of usage, the router stopped working and the handset buttons became non-responsive. For example, the number six button on my handset needs to be pushed multiple times before it registers. Both the router and handset appears fragile, light, and poorly made. Moreover, the Wi-Fi signal on the router is weak. I have the router established near the centre of the house, and yet, I can barely pick up a signal two rooms away. The internet signal will drop in and out during usage. This seems rather disappointing when the router is supposed to supply, what is termed, ‘high-speed’ internet.

While I support your ‘Green’ policy to promote the reusing of equipment after testing, the equipment should be tested more carefully to assure the customer it is of an acceptable standard and quality.

I should add that I was put on hold for well-over 50 minutes before a representative could answer my call to have the equipment replaced. The fault occurred on Friday 22nd February and, for obvious reasons with postage, I will not receive the new router and handset until later this week. In the meantime, I am without internet and a phone, and I am expected to pay for a full month of service while these errors are corrected.

Now, each complaint on their own might seem unimportant, and I would ordinarily ignore each issue if they had occurred over the contractual period. But since these issues occurred over a single month, I feel that I must inform you of the many problems that seem to plague your service. Anyone who has ever experienced a similar ordeal that I did would also carry the same opinion. Take these complaints with a grain of salt if you must, but I believe some new changes should be implemented to maintain the loyalty of your customer base. We have considered terminating the contract, but we will remain under your service to see you make the necessary improvements to your service. We hope you can continue to become a top provider in this country.

Yours sincerely, [omitted]

27/02/2013

Updated 17/03/2013- Note: This is my latest complaint

I began drafting the above complaints last month. I have left it largely unchanged, as it accurately states my objections at the time. I originally did not want to send the above complaints in hope that matters will be resolved. Unfortunately, I am now forced to bring this to your attention with another invoice I have just received. I have been recorded to have made a payment to Orcon for $219.31 for this month. The previous month I was charged $178.84. I talked to one of your representatives today and did not receive the answers I wanted. From what I gathered, I was billed from my previous old plan and for the Orcon genius sign-up to the total of $178.84 on February 4th. And now I have an invoice totalling $219.31. I have paid nearly $400 of internet and phone usage in the space of two months! That is more expensive than my power bills at the moment.

My household has become most infuriated and concerned with the lack of answers received. We are also sceptical of the amount of money being deducted from our accounts. There is no reasonable justification for imposing a bill of $219.31 on any household for internet usage. I am supposed to be on the Orcon Genius plan that should be costing me $89.00 a month (with exception to excessive usage and international calls). Do any of your representatives understand or sympathise with the position you people have left us in? I will definitely now consider terminating my plans with Orcon and incur the penalty. It is unbearable to see what kind of company this is. For a state-owned enterprise I expect better. If I should not hear from you in the next couple of months, we will most certainly move on with plans to join a new provider. We expect answers and relief to this abysmal mess you guys have created. Consider this your last warning.

Were you on ULL or not?Does Orcon Purple plan mean ULL? - sorry I can't remember.

If you are on ULL, you should have been able to move to one of the new Orcon plans without taking the Genius thing, but that might depend on what plan you moved to.

I was on ULL with POTS plus DSL and was able to move to the $99 unlimited plan without Genuis.

Regarding the two big bills in a row, you should simply ask them to explain. From my understanding, the old plans were post paid, you use the net then you get billed, while with the new plans, you pay in advance. So that might be at least part of the reason. I got something similar and asked - I can't remember if I called or e-mailed and they explained it to me.

Thanks Alex for the reply. I don't believe it is ULL. I rang them today and they did not break down the cost of the $219.31 bill. He said that he identified no problems with the billing. I was left rather dissatisfied with that answer, so I decided to forward my complaint further into the system. While the $178.84 may represent the last payment of my old plan usage and an advanced payment of Orcon genius, I still have problems grasping with why an even larger bill would follow that one. Not to mention, I listed a number of errors made by their staff in getting us set up to Orcon genius, i.e. the correct modem set up was not provided and the subsequent failure of the modem (which left us without net for a week). I honestly don't think I should be charged a full month of rubbish service, let alone pay a $219.31 bill! No one would let that pass without answers and a sense of accountability

I understand your frustation, but for the record, you can't consider this a formal complaint for the effects of any follow up dispute (through the TDR or other means) as there's no way we can guarantee Orcon is reading this post.

jeffnz: Would be nice if business's rang us up and told us better ways to save money but at the end of the day you need to take responsibility for what you signed up for.

If you used a service you agreed to pay for why expect discount for what you believe is bad service.

Use the CGA if you think you are in the right it will take the emotion out of it and they have to do something about it or go to small claims

Businesses are in the business of making money, so not their responsibility to individually check that customers are on the right plan for their needs. To do so would be an extra cost. That comes down to the customer to check. There are websites like consumers telco compare website than can help. This is the same across most industries. eg electricty etc.

Really I would just change providers there are way better deals out there than what Orcon are offering and better service. I would never had signed another contract with them and it states pretty clearly what the costs are if you want Genius.

I already PM one of their representatives with this complaint on geekzone. I merely posted this complaint online for people to get a sense of what has gone on from my experience. I just posted what I wrote. Yes, I know I must take responsibility for what plans I use. This is why I changed plans after all. However, its seems unfair to still operate these plans and not advise customers to join new plans when higher usage is occurring. When they are direct debiting payments out of your accounts and you have numerous bank statements and expenses to examine (i.e. home and business expenses), it can very easily slip out of your mind that you are paying a phenomenal amount on internet. I mean a company like Orcon is about ease of mind and convenience right? So where is it? I mean power companies can introduce me to money saving options, and it is a relatively simple process that they make it happen. They seem to understand the burdens of large bills, so why can't this state-owned enterprise do the same? In addition, my issues go way beyond large bills and archaic plans. I don't ordinarily voice complaints on one ground alone. My experience was just plagued with errors and frustration.

Thanks for the replies all. It is appreciated. I thought I would just cover my basis in my complaint. I know I should take responsibility for what plan I use, but I guess there are two sides to a story. If we take the argument that "businesses are simply in the business of making money", then that is not a business I would like to do business with. Who, in their rightful mind would? It demonstrates a lack of respect for the customer.

You may find that some of the older plans have different features that the newer ones don't have, and possibly different payment terms. This means that they possibily can't just switch people from an old plan to a new one. Most telcos are the same. I am on an old telecom plan, were I could pay a few dollars more and get a lot more bandwidth. But the call costs ar3e different.

Thanks for the replies all. It is appreciated. I thought I would just cover my basis in my complaint. I know I should take responsibility for what plan I use, but I guess there are two sides to a story. If we take the argument that "businesses are simply in the business of making money", then that is not a business I would like to do business with. Who, in their rightful mind would? It demonstrates a lack of respect for the customer.

If you only want to do business with companies in NZ who will ring you any time they can save you money, don't expect electricity water, telecommunications or Television. I am not fan of Orcons and your difficulties with your new genius set up are fair, but I wouldn't bother with the rest of your complaint about your expenditure based on usage. You used it. You knew the charges. It will shine you in a bad light I believe.

Based on your comments it sounds like you were confused about aspects of the plan you signed up for. It sounds like you opted for a Genius lite router? This doesn't have a phone as you just plug any handset into the back of this to use it.

Genius (with handset) costs $10 more per month or free with a term contract.

Hey sbiddle- thanks for the comment :) When I first talked to a representative on changing from Orcon purple to Orcon genius I made it quite clear that I needed a handset. I even specified that I might need two handsets for convenience. The representative assured me that one hand set would suffice my needs. I said that I wanted to disconnect my land line from Telecom and join the Orcon Genius plan to take up a land line with them. The representative told me that conventional handsets will not work with Orcon Genius and that I would need to get (as you have said) on a contract term and use their handset. I understood that. I gave a sweet nod and signed up on a twelve month plan. I needed and specifically requested their handsets because: what use is having a land line with Orcon if you do not have a hand set to ring people with?

Conventional handsets do not work with genius, only the Orcon engineered handsets will. So I definitely asked for one on the understanding that I be on a 12 month plan for $89/month. This first representative also assured me that all I would be paying is $89.00 a month, along with some additional one-off equipment hireage fees etc. Now when I did not receive the handset, I ran again and they discovered that somehow I was sent the wrong Orcon genius package (modem without handset) and that the first representative made a mistake when forwarding an order to their order department. He tells me that I can either incur a $10 fee per month to get my new handset, or I could extend my contract for a 24 month period to avoid the fee. I believe trouble erupted on a misunderstanding with the first representative, who did a good job on selling the product, but failed to implement the order properly to the specifications as I understood it and how he explained it.

I also read from other forums and have been told by friends that orcon has recently out-sourced their customer services overseas. While I support that business decision if there are obvious benefits that will be transferred to the customers and if it helps with overall business efficiency, it seems that this might be an underlying problem with the current delivery of orcon services. My experience with orcon customer service was horrible and rather slow. So another issue I wish to cite and share with you all.

freitasm: I understand your frustation, but for the record, you can't consider this a formal complaint for the effects of any follow up dispute (through the TDR or other means) as there's no way we can guarantee Orcon is reading this post.

zhongmatt: Make sure you have sent the following letter to Orcon directly. If you don't have any resolution to the issue you can then take the matter to TDR.

zhongmatt: If we take the argument that "businesses are simply in the business of making money", then that is not a business I would like to do business with. Who, in their rightful mind would? It demonstrates a lack of respect for the customer.

Every single telco in NZ does this and never will admit to doing it.

Sadly existing customers never get the good deals and there is no incentive for an ISP to quickly move their 10,000 of customers to spend less with them its a no brainier for the prospective of a business. Take Skinny for example: Telecom wanted to compete with 2Deg however lowering their prices to the same as 2deg's would cause a massive share price drop and share holders don't want this... Their solution create a sister company and keep your existing customers spending lots of money.... if they dont want to spend nots of money then let them move to Skinny.... Lose some proffit but not all.